Russell Gersten is Executive Director of Instructional Research Group, a nonprofit educational research institute in Long Beach, California. Currently, he directs the Mathematics component of the Center of Instruction, a comprehensive Technical Assistance Center for No Child Left Behind that provides states and regional centers with research based strategies for improving the quality of math instruction and mathematics instruction. He is also professor emeritus in the College for Education at the University of Oregon. He received his Ph. D in special education from the University of Oregon in 1978.

Dr. Gersten is a nationally recognized expert in both quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation methodologies, with an emphasis on translating research into classroom practice. Increasingly, he has been used as an expert in the area of mathematics research. He is the Co-Principal Investigator of large scale evaluation, using randomized controlled trials of a large scale national evaluation of the effectiveness of four contrasting approaches for teaching beginning mathematics to first and second graders, with a large focus on assessment of classroom instructional practices. Dr. Gersten has conducted two synthesis of intervention research on teaching mathematics to low-achieving students and students with math disabilities. He served as an advisor for the mathematics component of the Title I evaluation in 2003. He also recently completed a research project on developing valid measures for early screening of students with mathematics disabilities and is currently pursuing research on early preventative interventions. He has conducted research on the use of technology to teach mathematics to students with disabilities, and reviewed proposals on effective technology based mathematics curricula and effective after school mathematics intervention curricula for Institute of Educational Sciences in 2003-2004.

He has also published articles involving the sustained use of research-based instructional practice in mathematics and experimental and quasi-experimental research on instructional approaches for teaching mathematics to students with learning disabilities. Dr. Gersten has directed many U.S. Department of Education research grants dealing with English learners, reading comprehension, mathematics disabilities, and various math and science research grants for the Institute for Educational Sciences.

Dr. Gersten has directed or co-directed 35 applied research grants (totaling $12,321,122) addressing a wide array of issues in the education of students considered at risk for school failure, and the process of translating research into classroom practice. He serves on numerous national advisory panels and technical advisory groups for evaluation and research conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. He is considered an expert in the scientific research base of both reading and mathematics instruction. He has served as a consistent advisor, reviewer and editor for national and state initiatives in these areas.

At present, he has over 125 publications in scientific journals such as Review of Educational Research, the American Education Research Journal and Exceptional Children. Dr. Gersten serves on 12 editorial boards of many of the most prestigious journals in the field such as Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Exceptional Children. In 2005, he co-edited an issue of Journal of Learning Disabilities on early identification of mathematics disabilities and mathematics difficulties.

Dr. Gersten consults on numerous research and evaluation designs, and strategies for translating research into classroom practice for both Federal agencies, such as the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs, in addition to various states, including Texas, California, Ohio, and Arkansas, as well as major research universities, such as University of Texas, University of Kansas, the University of Nebraska, and University of California-Irvine. He recently served as Interim Co-Director of Lehigh University's Research to Practice Institute for mathematics problem solving.